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Performing Arts Showcase

The first half opens with a performance by the Year 10 dancers, decked out in their black shorts and red bowties- Very Bob Fosse! Their performance of The Greatest Show was vibrant, varied and a fabulous warm up to the whole excellent evening.

Next, we were serenaded by the lovely choir with their rendition of ‘Somewhere Only We Know’. Although small in number, this choir (very much like a famous brand of detergent), are mighty. They have great volume, which is not an easy thing to produce, stood in a spotlight in front of a large audience!

Holly and Lucy were a real comic treat in their Blood Brothers performance and certainly captured the essence of these two characters and their vastly different upbringings.

The Street Dance Duet saw fancy footwork from Alicja and Roseanna and was swiftly followed by Hana’s performance on Violin, a very tricky instrument to wield, but done with good confidence by Hana.

The Year 7 dancers treated us to a vibrant ‘mash up’ that showed off their talents, to see so many young women as confident performers at only 11/12 is inspiring and gives lots of promise for even bigger and better things in the future.

The first of many farcical dramas of the evening came from Livia, Megan, Leah and Hadassah – an unfortunate but very funny re-telling of Jack and the Beanstalk – this audience member particularly enjoyed the sassy social commentary. Hashtag Gender Equality!

The Multi-talented Georgia ditched her dancing bowtie and picked up her flute to give a lovely, confident performance accompanied by Mr Ackroyd on piano before he handed over the reins (or keys) to Kate for her solo. A massive well done for Kate, as not only did she perform alone, but from a position that was incredibly close to Mr Smith’s seat!

A return to farce bought us the delightful and ridiculous cast of ‘Beauty and the Beast Goes Wrong’. Mrs Pott’s costume had me in stitches!

Karina then treated us to a stunning, confident and energetic solo dance performance.

Without leaving much pause for the audience to recover the audience witnessed yet another comedy of errors in the form of Trinity and Jennie’s performance of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk Goes Wrong…Again’. Poor Jack… I mean Jade, took to the beanstalk with the tenacity of Rocky Balboa!

Winding down the first half was the multi-talented Holly with her rendition of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ – so easily performed by others in pub-karaoke style but taken as her own by Holly and made into an emotive and folksy piece that I found enchanting.

The first act was rounded off well by contemporary dance ‘Alive’. As a woman blessed with proportions more akin to a stubby t-rex, I must confess jealousy for the dancers’ legs which they wielded with such grace.

Act Two continued my leg envy with an opening performance entitled ‘Don’t Follow Me’. I couldn’t even if I wanted to ladies!

Following the ladies with legs was a well-orchestrated performance of Greenday’s 21Guns by Henry Francis. Henry played with flair and really captured the light and shade of the piece.

Taianne took us back to musical theatre with her performance of a Phantom of the Opera Classic – a challenging soprano piece, tackled with confidence.

The two dances that followed this performance could not have been more different, but both were excellent. The largest group of the evening were the Year 8 dancers who gave an excellent mash up that allowed so many to showcase their talents. Following on from this was the graceful, and exquisite Young Mozart Ballet. Their Point was ‘on point’.

Just when you thought the performance was going to plan, the cast of Little Red Riding Hood Goes Wrong proved their comic timing and prowess with a clever re-imagining of the tale.

Hot on their heels was Raheem who penned an original rap referencing Derby Moor, Raheem took to the spotlight with confidence and persevered through microphone issues like a true professional before Megan gave us a lovely little blast of ‘Chasing Cars’ in her guitar solo.

The choir returned to treat the audience to the classic from the musical Chess – I know Him So Well. They did it more than well before making way for an expressive and confident contemporary piece from Roseanna and Ruby.

The final dance of the schedule was no easy task – a stylish and well-coordinated tap routine to a song that is the currently the soundtrack of my life (I have a lot of gardening to do) ‘No Roots’.

The final drama piece of the night was a stunner, a physical theatre piece exploring love and loss without words and a minimum of props: just two bouquets and a striking rainbow umbrella. The piece was staged and flowed well with an excellent soundtrack accompaniment form The Cinematic Orchestra.

The finale of the night let us reward all of these fabulous performers with the rapturous applause they so clearly deserved and Lewis left us smiling with his entrance in his purple tutu, in true Greatest Showman style.

A huge well done must also go out to the staff that have made this event happen, for supporting the performers, running LX and sound, taking tickets, and of course compering! Without your time, effort and natural comic timing (Mr Ackroyd), I know that the students and school would be at a loss.